The present invention relates to an integrated exterior inlet/exhaust port for use with a ventilation system.
Modern buildings quite often are tightly sealed and insulated to facilitate air handling (i.e. heating and cooling) and to prevent unwanted elements, such as dust and pollution from entering. While the insulation of buildings provides a lot of benefits, it can also unfortunately prevents fresh air from entering an enclosed building and exhausted air from leaving the building.
As a result more and more modern buildings are being outfitted with air treatment units which can introduce outside air into the building, provide purification of the air, or a combination of both.
In the case of air treatment units which introduce outside air into the building, certain difficulties may arise with relation to the exterior inlet and outlet ports of the air treatment unit. These difficulties arise from the fact that to allow entry of air into the air treatment unit it is necessary to create a hole in the insulation of the building. The insulation of the building thus becomes less efficient.
Unfortunately, there is so far no way of allowing outside air to enter the air treatment unit without allowing a channel to the outside. In fact, most air treatment units require two separate channels to the outside, one through which exhausted air from the inside is released outside, and one through which fresh air from the outside is drawn into the air treatment unit. As a result, it becomes necessary to have two holes in the insulation of the building, thereby making the insulation even weaker.
Furthermore, installation may also become more complex, especially in the case where holes need to be made in a building that has walls constructed from a very hard substance (e.g. bricks or concrete). If a building is made from a very hard substance then the time taken to create a hole might be substantial, and would further require specialised equipment. Thus, installation would be simplified if only a single hole needed to be made in the wall rather than two.
It would therefore be beneficial to have an integrated exterior inlet/exhaust port which would only take up as much space as a typical duct, and which would allow the exhausting of air from the inside of the building, and at the same time allow fresh air to be drawn into the building from the outside.
A problem with this type of duct would be that most air treatment units are designed to use two separate ducts, it would therefore be difficult to fit an integrated exterior inlet/exhaust port to a typical air treatment unit.
Furthermore, due to the close proximity of the inlet duct and the exhaust duct which is necessary for an integrated exterior inlet/exhaust port, there is the danger of short-circuiting the air flow. In this case the inlet duct would draw in the air exhausted from the exhaust duct, instead of drawing fresh air from the outside.
It is therefore apparent that an integrated exterior inlet/exhaust port which can easily be connected to existing air treatment units, and which prevents short-circuiting of the inlet and the exhaust air flow is desirable.
In accordance with one aspect the invention provides a dual opening air communication unit comprising:
a shell component;
a first channel component formed in said shell component for communicating a first air stream between a first air channel and an outside; and
an second channel component formed in said shell component for communicating a second air stream between a second air channel and said outside;
said first channel component and said second channel component being formed such that said first air stream and said second air stream are transverse to each other.
In accordance with a more particular aspect said first air stream may be an exhaust air stream, and wherein said second air stream may be a fresh air stream.
In accordance with a more particular aspect the invention may further comprise a component for varying the speed of the air in dual opening air communication unit, adapted such that said exhaust air stream may have a higher speed than said fresh air stream.
In accordance with a further aspect the invention provides a ventilation duct comprising:
a first channel component;
a second channel component; and
adapter component for connecting said first channel component and said second channel component to separate ducts;
said first channel component and second channel component being disposed such that a flow of a gas passing through one channel will not be able to pass to the other channel.
In accordance with a more particular aspect said first channel component and second channel component may share a common wall.